Before the Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held in Austria next week, A-bomb survivor groups in Hiroshima Prefecture will actively participate in the conference on behalf of the A-bombed areas with Mayor Matsui of Hiroshima City who visits the site. I handed over the requested form.
The first meeting of the Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, from the 21st of this month, and Mayor Matsui of Hiroshima City will visit the site.
On the 15th before departure, six A-bomb survivor groups in Hiroshima Prefecture handed a request to Mayor Matsui at Hiroshima City Hall.
In the request, on behalf of the A-bombed areas, he urged Prime Minister Kishida to participate in the conference as an observer, and requested that Hiroshima City express its cooperation in supporting the A-bomb survivors around the world.
He also requested that Japan act as a bridge to promote the world's nuclear disarmament toward the NPT = Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference scheduled for August.
Mayor Matsui, who received the request, said, "In Vienna, I would like to mention your thoughts and learn about the positions and activities of each country."
Tomoyuki Minomaki, President of the Hiroshima Prefectural Union, said, "I want Mayor Matsui to come to the meeting with concrete measures to eliminate nuclear weapons."
Kunihiko Sakuma, the chairman of another prefectural union association, said, "It is important to ratify the treaty in order to really eliminate nuclear weapons. I want you to clearly show your desire to eliminate nuclear weapons as an A-bombed country."